


Resistance

by hungrybookworm



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Community: cliche_bingo, F/M, Horror, Spoilers for the NGL arc, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-31
Updated: 2009-08-31
Packaged: 2018-01-15 10:12:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1301179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hungrybookworm/pseuds/hungrybookworm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This time, they would be the heroes. They were sure of it... Pokkle and Ponzu, and why they were in NGL.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resistance

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 'Zombies' at cliche_bingo. Hunter x Hunter is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

Pokkle quickly zipped the body bag up, resisting the urge to vomit. He was standing in the middle of the warehouse, amongst a sea of cloth cocoons that each held a corpse, standing next to one particular victim. The place stank of stale blood and decay, and the floor was coated with dark red marks that peeled off as you walked. Death’s storehouse.

“Is it as you suspected?” asked the guard beside him, the sun glinting in his glasses as he folded his arms impatiently.

Pokkle nodded, wiping his brow with his sleeve. It was too horrible. “Yeah,” he managed to croak out. “Yeah, thanks. We’ll go now.”

The guard suppressed a grin and turned away, ready to lead the visitor away. It was obvious that he didn’t like foreigners routing through the morgue. He probably found it disrespectful, not to mention suspicious. Pokkle decided not to let it bother him, and concentrated on keeping his lunch under control. The two of them leaped over the body bags, using the clear patches of floor as stepping stones. It wouldn’t be long now before the warehouse was full. Underneath the stench of rot there was the faint smell of petroleum, and of burning meat. The walls were covered in long black stains that stretched from the roof to the floor. This wasn’t just a morgue, it was a crematorium.

Down the corridor, into reception. Pokkle was never happier to leave. After filling out some forms and once again showing the receptionist his Hunter’s License, he thanked them and left.

The sun was blazing outside. The morgue was an illegal one, situated in the middle of a grassy plain, hidden behind a large clump of trees. The grass was long and the trees provided plenty of cover. Ideal hunting ground. He could hear a chorus of insects chirp away amongst the vegetation.

_Insects…_

He couldn’t help it. Pokkle was barely a few feet away from the door when he suddenly retched. Knowing what was coming, and feeling slightly ashamed for it, he stumbled into the long grass and threw up.

His teacher, the guy that’d taught him Nen… he was dead. Except he wasn’t… him. It wasn’t him. Not completely. His body had been grossly deformed. His legs were half melted together, his skin was covered in dry scales, his arms appeared to have been hanging on by a thread… And his face –

Pokkle threw up again, pain shooting through his stomach. His arms were shaking as he gripped onto the grass. His teacher was now nothing more than a defective Chimera Ant. His death had been a mercy killing more than anything.

_Pull yourself together…_

Still shaking, Pokkle stood up, rubbing the tears off his cheeks and the acid from his mouth. Now that he knew he was dead, they had a choice. Continue their journey through NGL, or acknowledge their limits and turn back.

He began to wade towards the trees, brushing his clothes and patting down his hair. Ponzu was sitting at the base of the tree, letting her bees play with the flowerbeds and watching them as she waited.

“Where are the others?” asked Pokkle, referring to the two other men that were with them.

“The horses bolted, so they went to get them,” Ponzu stood up and made a small signal with her finger. The bees began to return. “I volunteered to wait for you.”

“But -”

“It’s fine,” she said firmly. “I can look after myself. Rely on me a little. How did it go?”

“He’s dead,” Pokkle confirmed, his voice sounding stronger than he felt. Ponzu’s face fell. “The ants got him. It wasn’t nice to look at.”

“Oh.”

They stood there in silence. She looked distressed, and the bees in her headwear were making a fuss. Eventually she slid back down again, wrapping her arms around her knees. Pokkle sat down beside her, momentarily considering putting his arm around her, but deciding against it. He still had the bee stings from his previous attempt.

“What are we gonna do then?” Ponzu asked after a while. The whole point of their trip to NGL had been to rendezvous with Pokkle’s teacher, who’d gone to learn more about the mysterious Chimera Ants. “Continue his work? Leave?”

“I’m not sure.”

They both looked up at the sky, a cloudless blue peeking between the overhanging tree branches. He felt like the weather was mocking him. _Let’s be cheery and bright today,_ it was saying, layered with irony. Typical.

He let his mind wander. How had the ants captured his teacher? Did he struggle as he was cut up and made into a ball of flesh? Did he remember anything after becoming an ant himself? At what point had he stopped being aware of himself as a human?

At what point did he really die?

A shiver ran through him. He didn’t want to think about that. He tried to cut his thoughts off but it was too late. As a kid, he’d stayed up late at night once to watch a horror movie. In that movie, a swarm of mutated insects could reanimate the dead with one bite, and the corpses went around harvesting fresh meat for the insects to spawn in. He remembered one particular scene where one of the female characters was cornered by her dead boyfriend in the shower. After trying to fend him off with a bottle of shampoo, she cried: ‘God’s sent us a plague of zombies!’ and died. Looking back, it was an awful line, but it stuck in his head. The combination of a zombie flick and a deadly insect swarm flick… terrifying for a nine year old.

Now the movie was replaying in real life. There were several differences, but fundamentally it was the same thing. Humans were being indiscriminately slaughtered to produce new ants, and these new ants were no better than the undead, roaming around in the vague form of whatever it was they got mashed together with in the ant queen’s stomach. They might even still be half alive in there. It was horrific.

It was terrifying.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Ponzu look back at him, determined. For a moment he was lost for words.

And then she hugged him.

“Uhh, P – Ponzu?” He was going red. Should he hug her back?

“Listen,” she whispered, “it’s OK to be scared. I am too.” And she was. He could feel her shaking. “But we can’t let them get away with it.”

She was right. When it came down to it, Pokkle wasn’t going to run away with his tail between his legs. He wasn’t the only one who’d suffered due to the Chimera Ants. If nothing was done, millions more people would go through the same fate. They would die that horrible half death or see their loved ones mutated and mutilated. The longer the ants had to evolve, the worst they would become. They had to rip off the bud while they still could.

“Let’s contact the Hunter Organisation and tell them what happened,” Ponzu was saying, “then we’ll return and find out as much as we can about these ants. We can work in a group with others and help find their weakness. We should help bring them down.”

She was right. Of course she was right. Even though he was the one with Nen and the license, she was so much more experienced than him. They had to prevent it, that ‘plague of zombies’. They’d run to the border, get in contact and find out what they could do. Maybe just for once they’d be the heroes of this hunt. If they could prevent just one single death…

He hugged her back, taking care not to touch the beehive. She felt soft and warm in his arms, and he felt oddly happy.

At the end of the film, the insects had been killed and the good guys won. It was a small comfort to the terrified Pokkle, who’d been hiding behind the sofa for the last hour. In the end, the monster was defeated.

They’d definitely defeat this monster in the end too.

Definitely...


End file.
